Lake is quiet this morning, nary a ripple, maybe this should be ZEN instead

Hello Attaturk I am not on bullseye but close;
I am sending this to you as it contains the tasks of the next administration. The article also describes what bushco has done and what will be necessary to turn it around. It mirrors what I have thought for some time and goes a bit beyond with trade policies.

I am not sure there is a candidate equiped to see and do what is necessary. We are going to have to bite the bullet thanks to all Bush has given to the rich and corporate america.

Joseph Stiglitz the author is worth sharing with influential democrats. I have not listened to the candidates but have read some of the reviews. They have not presented these conundrums to the public. I believe they intend to weasil some more which will deepen the damage already suffered. Please share this with your influential democrat friends and lawyers.

Thank You,
Al Barrow, President, Citizens for Affordable and Safe Environment & Coalition for Low Income Housing

http://www.vanityfair.com/poli…..rentPage=1

Has the Dean anything to say about his supposed sources for the Mitt’s Dad marched with Dr King myth? If Mitt goes under it will be Broder who will get blamed unless Mitt makes another big mistake right before the primaries start.
The Dean like most oldboy network GOPers is beyond accountability which is ok provided that nobody is paying attention. Thanks to the war, higher gas prices etc more people are paying attention.
I wonder how the Dean, Joe Klein etc will react when we finally force one of these mythical sources, or I will write about subjects I don’t understand reporters out of a job?

I was off reading Vanity Fair and Salon. Troops are still on the ground. What are we accomplishing here? Recall Britain’s effort in the early 1900’s in what is now Iraq. Seems they unified and we disasembled these tribes. Now we have a war going betwenn Turkey and the Kurds of Northern Iraq and we havw switched to the Turkish side when once we were allies of the Kurds. We are the slipperiest fastest change artist in history! It boggles the mind. Wonder what Joe Wilson and Valerie Plame think of it all.
Aren’t we confusing our Spooks?

Funny how the GOP Presidential Candidates except for Ron Paul all want the war to go on, they want a bigger army, they all want tax cuts, yet despite saying tax cuts will make us all richer.
Some of the GOPers are also talking about cutting entitlement spending (GOP code for Social Security). Why are they talking about cutting social security which is a very popular program, if the GOPers really thought that cutting taxes would really increase tax revenue?
You can’t have it both ways at the same time will cutting takes pay for Social Security, the war in Iraq etc or won’t it?

first of all it’s not a surge it’s an escalation and second, this “the surge is a successs” crap is what they do, the repeat ad infinitub whatever is opposite of the truth so people think there’s a debate between the left and the right when there is no debate, there’s the truth and people lying and that’s all there is

yet the media, in lock step, all claim the surge is a blazing success

Good morning, pups. Not only is it back-to-work day, it’s a day with only MoDo in the NYT. She’s schooling us all in the meaning of Christmas.

http://mgpaquin.wordpress.com/

The coffee, tea and hot chocolate are all ready, the biscuits are out of the oven, and I’m trying to find the motivation to go back to work… Have a good day.

Always been a big problem once saddam was gone — just who are we fighting here? The bad guys, of course. But the i.d. of the “bad guys” has been shifting over and over again. I assume that was a rhetorical question. Seems to me that the only thing we are accomplishing is getting more people killed and getting more people pissed at us.

Good morning pups!

Nessie? That would be Cousin Nessie to those of us Mc’s from the Inverness/Loch Ness area. Can’t verify Bigfoot or Broder for ya tho.

I would have thought the media would be collectively embarrassed after so blatantly being used as a tool for a bogus war. That’s pretty serious and , I think, goes beyond the usual spin fest of politics on The Hill. So I thought they media would be more circumspect about everything comming out of this Administration. It’s really sad to see people talking about the succeess of The Surge and not being challenged. At all.

The media is drunk on holiday eggnog and stuffed full of DC cocktail party wienies. They can’t be bothered to actually research or report…

What are the latest poll numbers you people have seen about support for the war? How, if at all, has it changed since the Surge?

Amazon.co.uk is the source of this book written by an Irish Barrister. It is a brilliant illumination of what is troubling you in the comment, basically that nearly everything in your experience seems to be a lie or some multi-reflection of lies told that obscure the facts that are needed to operate in a rational world. It may be one of the most important books anyone in the States reads actually and well worth the cost of obtaining it from the UK. I cannot recommend it too much. Sorry for the delay, was looking for my copy for the ISBN number but could not find it therefore the linky to Amazon.co.uk.

There is the old adage…”The operation was a success, but the patient died”

Recall what the goal of this massive escalation was supposed to be…”creating enough space for national reconciliation and the training of Iraqi troops. Using US forces integrated with Iraqi forces to establish control and then allow government forces to permanently occupy the area.

In fact what has happened is the establishment of regional warlords and the acquiescence of US forces to local political bosses. There has been little, if any, actual use of mixed units (that was stopped because of the fear that elements within the ING might contact insurgents and expose the US forces to attacks). In Baghdad the occupation of areas like Sadr City has only been because a deal was struck with Sadr, who told his militias to stand down. But they still essentially run Sadr City: “taxing” businesses, closing those that are non-Halal or kafir , and generally harassing those that don’t conform to shari’a. In the Southeast a low-scale civil war for territory has been waged between Shiite militias.

The government really has done nothing regarding reconciliation. In fact, there is more dissention now than last January. The Shiites under Sadr have repeatedly withdrawn from Parliament over the term of the “surge”, bringing the government to a standstill. The leading faction has continually admonished the US over arresting members of their associated members and have stated that they will shut-down the Sunni “Citizen forces” created by the Americans. They point out that the establishment of these groups was never authorized by the Iraq Government…and they have threatened to “remove their guns” when the Iraqi Military arrives.

The Kurds increasingly operate like an independent state, offering oil contracts and issuing foreign policy directives out of their regional Parliament.

In what may have been one of the most embarassing acts of “UP YOURS” in diplomatic history the Iraqi Parliament decided to take a month’s vacation in the midst of working out the National Oil Bill…then did it again at Christmas. Right at the time a Congressional delegation featuring Lindsey Graham was visiting to see whether there had been political progress.

Excellent point. Things have gotten further from the goal of the Surge, not closer. And every time I hear about “building Iraq from teh bottom up” I want to be ill. Do they think the warlords are interested?

Didn’t Lindsay Graham give the Iraqi’s a deadline – and he really means it. Really, really – for making progress?

The initial goal was to establish the sovereignty (i.e., monopoly on violence) of the Iraqi government, which by definition can’t happen so long as there’s a civil war in progress. But we diminished the violence by non-governmental forces in exchange for military and financial assistance from us. Thus, we got the appearance of progress by pushing the goal farther away. (The MSM, however, will never figure that out.)

After hours of converstion with my nephew who is employed by KBR in Iraq, his take on the entire scenario………..”the money being wasted constitutes a criminal enterprise.”

“If the American people ever knew the truth, they would demand shutting this operation down overnignt.” “It is all about oil, and we can never win, for the same reason the King of England lost to the American colonist.” “We have lost all credibiliy in Iraq with the people of Iraq and they want USA out of their country.” “It is a crime.”

Bush/Cheney and his corporate cohorts in colonial crime are doing to Iraq what England did to the American colonies…… “RAPE THEM FOR PROFIT”

Right. But first they lowered expectations – no military victory. I think alot of people are so desparate for signs of progress, they’ll take most anything. And the GOP tries to capitalize on this – never mind that the original goal is further away than ever. If people in the media would just call them on this. It isn’t hard and people would understand — we’re no closer to our goal and, as you point out are even further away. It’s just more of the same “we’ll stay as long as it takes” b.s. that people have rejected overwhelmingly. Also, the media should have continually beat the administration about the head with those benchmarks – how’s it going this week, Dana? Instead, soon after the progress report was released, it wasn’t considered news anymore.

great post and so true as the shrub creeps up in the opinion polls based on a flat out lie. F–king Barry MCCaffrey was on talking about the spirit of Christmas being aive in Iraq and yet in an interview with the ONE christian family left….all they want to do is move to Germany (CNN interview)

Plus McCaffrey is obviously out of the loop talking about troop reductions since Andiano (sp?) the general in eyerack said they would know more in March (I guess no one told him March was canceled.)

they are nothing but bi fat liars…the whole lot of them

You’re no relation to Lidsay Graham Carcker are you?

I wonder how much of Bush’s creep isn’t from pity. People think he’ll be gone soon, so he’s harmless-no need to pick on the guy, right?

Bush is eating a kitten? He must have learned that from Cheney.

Not related to the Graham Crackers of Florida either :)

I think the creep is related to the false coverage of the Eyerack war

Late to the thread–Matthews on Morning Without Joe talking about the establishment and, on the Democratic side, the insiders always trumping the outsiders.

Says Obama’s 22 year old supporters better get to those caucuses, totally contrary to historic precedent, and participate or never say another word for the rest of their lives….

And says Hillary is desperately praying that Edwards wins in Iowa….yadda, yadda.

To which I say, be careful what you wish for….

He also noted Bush is a shrewd guy with absolutely no understanding of the world and no interest… Obama is the UnBush.

Juan Cole should be required reading.

All you need to know about Tweety

last week he was predicting the Biden surge

“3. Myth: The Iraqi north is relatively quiet and a site of economic growth. Fact: The subterranean battle among Kurds, Turkmen and Arabs for control of the oil-rich Kirkuk province makes the Iraqi north a political mine field. Kurdistan now also hosts the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) guerrillas that sneak over the border and kill Turkish troops. The north is so unstable that the Iraqi south is now undergoing regular bombing raids from Turkey.”

Well, after reading the whole Cole piece, I keep coming back to the above. The last sentence just does not seem factual. Are we to believe that Turkey is flying across Iraq to bomb the “Iraqi south”?? That would be major news, I think and because it isn’t it makes the whole piece kind of suspect to me.

The main reason that there is the least ion of bullshit for the media to use to be calling us all to do the Mesopotamian Happyfeet jig, is that bush and CentCom, are paying 10’s of thousands (70,000?) of Sunni Insurgents $300 a month to stop attacking us (and the Shiites), and to roust what’s left of Al Queada in Iraq, a bit.

I believe it’s fair to call it “protection money”, and the question (which the bushCo suckasses in the media KNOW not to ask, along with dozens more) (just like with the mob) is this:

“What happens when we stop paying?”

(Cue the soundtrack of grunts, moans, and bones breaking…)

Of course, the plan for goatboy and the goopers, is to KEEP paying, and paying whatEVER it takes, to string their fuckup out for the next year, and then they wave bye-bye with extended middle-fingers from their limos as they head out to their boardroom hideouts, to gear up for the “who lost Iraq” assault on the poor, stupid, democrats, who seem to be brain-dead enough to let them get away with this obscenity.

It’s as if the dems are saying:

“Yeah, we’re in this with you, because the fallout from “losing” will be so unbearable to all of our capitalist myths, that we’ll gladly eat your shit, while you gang-fuck us at the same time.”

But, I’ll tote the lantern, if you guys will keep your eyes open for that honest candidate with the courage and the smarts to warn the american people that there aint gonna be no happy ending for the clusterfuck, and
that they really, really, need to assign the responsibility for that unpleasant truth to george bush and the GOP, and BEFORE they ooze off into the sunset.

It’s clearly not what he meant to say. He was probably thinking “Turks bombing Kurdish areas in Iraq to their south.”

The Shiites are watching bush fund the Sunnis, AND arm them, and they HAVE to be thinking of junior:

“This asshole is the son of the guy who told us to buck up to Saddam after GWI, who then hung us out to dry. Why should we help cover his and the GOP’s asses?”

Sadr can lift a finger and make all the surge “benefits” go away. Same thing with the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq (formerly SCIRI); they of the Badr gangs.

I believe the Shiites have figured out long ago, that their passivity will not lead to an end of the occupation, but will only make it easier for bush, and then, some democrat, to sustain it, to prevent their 60% majority from exercising the power that comes with sitting on 85% of Iraq’s reserves, and from being next door to their bros in Iran.

THAT little linkup is one that bush cannot stand, nor, I believe, will the democrats who are not that much less protective of Wall St. than are the goopers, stand for it. But whether it’s 10 weeks from now, or 10 years from now, the fallout from bush’s unhorsing of Saddam, and from his popping the lid on the snakepot of factionalism that is Iraq, is going to happen, unless the american people are into spending that $3 billion a week, and sacrificing 50-100 troops a month, permanently. (They’re not)

Now, it’s just a matter of who gets blamed for it.